An American living in Russia for a year
Mar. 2nd, 2004 02:34 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
letnja_kishaHere's a diary of an American college student living in Saint-Petersburg for a year: http://students.ou.edu/W/Heather.E.Worley-2/
Very well-written, interesting and enlightening. And I'd say objective in not being prejudiced in either direction ("all Russian is best" or "all American is best"). Recommend to all (regardless of your country of origin).
Very well-written, interesting and enlightening. And I'd say objective in not being prejudiced in either direction ("all Russian is best" or "all American is best"). Recommend to all (regardless of your country of origin).
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Date: 2004-03-02 05:16 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2004-03-04 08:56 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2004-04-02 11:31 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2004-04-02 11:45 am (UTC)BTW, do you speak German?
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Date: 2004-04-02 12:11 pm (UTC)Well, I forget exact citations, but it looks like this girl is comparing life in SPB with that at her place and I could not see that she is ready to attribute it to that SPB is one of the capitals of a hugh empire whereas her town is a small community in a state most americans have no association with, let alone foreigners, rather than to cultural differences between russians and americans in general. Look at this:
Everyone in Norman was super-excited at the Weitzenhoffer gift, which was truly phenomenal for OU, but it only has a few of Degas' studies and one Van Gogh - a drop in the ocean of art. Comparatively speaking, the Hermitage is sort of like the Atlantic (the Louvre would have to be the Pacific, I guess).
Of course it is, but not because one is russian and the other is american - it is because SPB is not Norman, OK. It sould be more interesting to relate to, say, Art institute of Chicago or National Gallery in Washington DC. And yes, she fails to compare it to the Met (rather than Louvre), the world largest art collection, located in her native country. Or perhaps she has never lived in the north, that would explain.
That said, I do give this girl hugh credit as she is by far more educated that I would imagine an average russian living in a town of comparable size (райцентр) could possibly be.
Do you know her personally?
BTW, do you speak German?
Two semesters here at MIT and already well depreciated. Why?
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Date: 2004-04-02 12:19 pm (UTC)I don't know her personally, no. I got the link from privet.com.
About German - since I intend to post in German here from time to time, I thought at least you would be able to understand :) and possibly comment (I don't think anybody else speaks it).
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Date: 2004-04-02 12:39 pm (UTC)Sure, but hope you realized that at least some of the differences are attributable to that Cincinnati's position in America is not anything like what Moscow's position is in Russia. I just could not see any reservation of that sort in this girl's reports and that seemed wierd to me.
It reminds me that many mech-math profs who in hard 90ies were seeking positions in US colleges often complained that american students are crap compared to russian students. Well, yes, but not becasue americans are weaker in general, but because mech-math is nation's best math place whereas University of Idaho isn't. Have they moved to someplace like Орловский политехнический институт they would not be happy either.
since I intend to post in German here from time to time, I thought at least you would be able to understand :) and possibly comment (I don't think anybody else speaks it).
I will be happy to, but I am definitely not the only one - say,
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Date: 2004-04-02 12:39 pm (UTC)